X200 X201 Hardware Flashing - bibanon/Coreboot-ThinkPads GitHub Wiki

Flashing Methods

The X200 and X201 can be flashed using a BeagleBone Black, a Raspberry Pi, or a Bus Pirate. Libreboot offically supports the BeagleBone Black, but the price of the BeagleBone is $55 compared to a $35 Raspberry Pi and if you're reading this, you likely have one lying around.

16-pin BIOS Chip

Only the numbers with an asterisk are plugged in to a wire.

       16-pin X200 Pomona 5252

===  front (display) on your X200 ====
        9     -       -     8*
       10*    -       -     7*
       11     -       -     6
       12     -       -     5
       13     -       -     4
       14     -       -     3
       15*    -       -     2*
       16*    -       -     1 - this is pin 1 on the flash chip
===  back (palmrest) on your X200 ===

Pin #	SPI Pin Name	Bus Pirate (Seed Color)	BeagleBone Black	Raspberry Pi
2	3.3V	3.3V PSU	3.3V PSU	17 or 3.3V PSU
7	CS	White	Pin 17	24
8	MISO	Black	Pin 21	21
10	GND	Brown	Pin 1	25
15	MOSI	Gray	Pin 18	19
16	CLK	Purple	Pin 22	23

8-pin BIOS Chip

Fun Fact: This chip pinout is exactly the same as the X60 and T60.

8-pin X200 POMONA 5250:

~~~~ VGA (left) ~~~~
        4321
        ----
        |  |
        ----
        5678
~~Hard Drive (right)~

Pin #	SPI Pin Name	Bus Pirate (Seeed Color)	BeagleBone Black	Raspberry Pi
1	CS	White	Pin 17	24
2	MISO	Black	Pin 21	21
3	not used	not used	not used	not used
4	GND	Brown	Pin 1	25
5	MOSI	Gray	Pin 18	19
6	CLK	Purple	Pin 22	23
7	not used	not used	not used	not used
8	3.3V	3.3V PSU	3.3V PSU	17 or 3.3V PSU